Using bulldozers is UP culture, spare madrassas: AIUDF chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal to Himanta Biswa Sarma

GUWAHATI: Days before a madrassa in Assam's Bongaigaon was razed on Wednesday, police had arrested one of its teachers, Mufti Hafizur Rahman, who is allegedly a member of Bangladesh-based Ansarullah Bangla Team - an affiliate of the al-Qaida in Indian subcontinent, Rahman had joined the madrassa as a teacher in 2018.
On Tuesday, police raided the madrassa along with the arrested teacher and found several objectionable items and literature. About 200 students staying there were evacuated by the district authorities before the building was brought down.

"The district disaster management authorities had issued a notice to the madrassa for violation of building norms and declared that it was not fit for human habitation. All the students have left for their homes," a police officer said.
The authorities ordered the demolition on the grounds that the madrassa did not possess the necessary documents to carry out multipurpose activities on a single campus with multiple buildings with unspecified number of persons. Besides, it had insufficient provisions to mitigate any kind of possible disaster and the structures also appeared in a hazardous condition, they said.
Earlier on Monday, a madrassa set up by a Bangladeshi national and member an al-Qaida affiliate illegally on government land in 2019 was razed by authorities in Barpeta district. The first madrassa, run by an alleged fund raiser of AQIS, had been demolished in Morigaon district on August 4.
While CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said these institutions were being used "as a hub for terrorism", AIUDF chief and Lok Sabha MP Badruddin Ajmal, for the first time on Wednesday, appealed to the CM not to raze the madrassas. "Take action against jihadis but spare madrassas which are public properties," he said.
Invoking "Assamese culture", the MP said, "Using bulldozers is a culture in UP but not in Assam. Sarma, being an Assamese, should desist from engaging bulldozers. I can say Sarma being an Assamese can never imbibe the characters of RSS. This culture of RSS is not in his blood."